Help! Recording guitar amp

[brandon30]

I've Just started doing some home recording and I'm running a presonus firestudio interface into Logic Pro 8

The problem is when I go to record my guitar amp (marshall halfstack) it clips like crazy. they guitar amp is up fairly loud but the mics (sm57)arent and the volume on my inputs arent anywhere near clipping but I hear clipping anyways. When i turn the mic donw low enough so it doesnt clip, the signal is no where near loud enough for the mix. then I go a smaller 15w practice amp and I can turn the mics way up and don't have any clipping issues, and I get a big strong signal.
Anybody know whats going on? thanks

 

[Minion]

What level do you record at ?? Most DAW"s will set the recording level to 0db at default , if you move the recording level down to say -18db you will have a lot more headroom before the DAW clips ...

And it is good to set your mic preamp volume fairly low , With a dynamic mic and a loud Cab your Mic preamp volume should probably be 20db or lower , its better to have a lower signal level that you can boost later than a signal so hot that it clips cuz you can"t fix that later .....


Cheers

 

[miroslav]

When i turn the mic donw low enough so it doesnt clip, the signal is no where near loud enough for the mix.

The SM57 mic has no volume adjustment...so you may be overloading the mic (takes a lot of SPL to do that), which will NOT show up as a clip on your Presonus input meters...it will just sound like a clip.
How loud are you playing that halfstack???

1.) Adjust the gain stages for proper tracking level (don't worry about the mix level).

2.) Once you have it recorded...adjust your track level for the mix.

 

[buzzard bass]

Agree with Miroslav, you're overdriving the mic.